Indonesian police, suspected terrorists exchange gunfire in West Java

JAKARTA, May 8 (UPI) -- Anti-terror police exchanged gunfire with suspected terrorists who may belong to a group that plotted to bomb Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta, an official said.

Deputy Chief Nanan Soekarna said the squad raided a house in West Java Wednesday after receiving information from two men arrested last week on suspicion of plotting to bomb the embassy in response to violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country formally known as Burma, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"The siege of a house rented by the suspected terrorists" is going on, the deputy chief told reporters.

The arrests last week followed increasingly violent incidents in Indonesia over violence between Myanmar's majority Buddhists and Muslims in which at least 200 people died and more than 100,000 people have been displaced during the past year.

Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia's counter-terrorism chief, told the Journal Friday the two men arrested were part of a network that had carried out attacks on police and foreign missions in Indonesia.

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